What does it mean to be in the Midwest?
The Mississippi River in The Quad Cities Reginald Hardwick/IPM News
A new study looks at what brings us together as Midwesterners. Researchers from a journal called the Middle West Review asked about 11,000 people from 22 states their perceptions of Midwestern identity. Almost 94 percent of the Illinoisans who responded said yes, they live in the Midwest. But the Midwestern identity stretches further than we might think, if the survey is any indication. More than half of the people from Wyoming who responded said yes, they live in the Midwest, and yes, they consider themselves to be Midwestern.
GUEST:
Jon Lauck
Editor-in-chief, Middle West Review; founding president, Midwestern History Association; Author, The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800–1900